American Legion wins two, loses one over weekend

A Helper American Legion team member makes his way around third base during the game against Hunter on July 6. This was a great home game for Helper, who easily won 8-5 against Hunter.

The Helper American Legion team had a long weekend playing three games in Salt Lake City. After two wins and one loss, the league record is now at 10-1 for Helper, who is still first in the league by one win.

On Friday night, Helper went up against Murray. The game started off slow for both teams, but Helper finally kicked the game into high gear, winning by the nine run mercy rule.

Helper managed to score 13 runs in just five innings of play, ending the game 4-13 against Murray.

Murray scored one run in the first, having two hits in the inning.

Helper scored their first run in the third inning when Mike Smith hit a homer, while Murray scored three on a homer.

The game looked to go either way until Helper came out in the fourth and made a lasting impression when they put seven more runs on the scoreboard.

They came out in the fifth and did just about the same as they had in the last inning, adding five more runs.

Kyle Asay took over pitching in the third and pitched great for Helper. He also hit a home run in the fourth, bringing home three runners.

Doubles were in abundance during this game for Helper, who had four with the help of Chris Hatch, Trever Thompson, Aaron Sandoval and Tyler Nelson. Sandoval and Nelson were both 3-4 hitting and neither had a problem scoring runs.

The second game of the night turned out a little less than great for Helper, who lost to Olympus 8-6.

The exhausted Helper team took on Olympus right after slaughtering Murray earlier that night. Even though Helper has beaten Olympus twice already this season, they came out having a few problems stopping Olympus from putting runs on the scoreboard.

Olympus came in early, scoring one run in the first on two hits. They also added another run in the second on two walks and one hit.

Mike Zaccaria slides safely into second.

Four more runs scored by Olympus in the third helped them take a strong lead on Helper. By the third inning, Olympus already had a 6-2 dominion over Helper.

Two more runs in the fifth for Olympus sealed the deal against Helper, who tried their best to pull themselves out of their first loss, almost succeeding.

Helper finally started to hit in the sixth inning, scoring three runs. Helper added another run in the seventh, but couldn't pull themselves out of their first loss in league play.

Hatch and Chandler Pearson both had two hits during the game.

Asay started the game and pitched well for three innings. Brett Johnson also came in and pitched great for three innings.

The next day, Helper went up against Tooele and had a much better game than the previous night. Helper succeeded in taking a 14-4 win on the nine run mercy rule in just five innings.

Helper completed an amazing six runs in just the first inning. A double by Pearson and singles by Nelson and Smith were all key to having such a great inning.

Tooele scored their first two in the second inning on two hits and one error by Helper.

Helper then came back in during the fourth inning and scored seven more. Homers by Pearson and Nelson along with a double by Hatch helped out during the inning.

Tooele came back out in the fifth and completed two more runs on two hits and another error in the field, but nothing could pull them out of a loss against Helper.

Mike Smith pitched a great game against Tooele. Nelson was 3-3 and had three RBIs while Pearson was 4-4 and had 4 RBIs.

Helper is next scheduled to take on Judge at home on Friday. The game is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

A doubleheader is also scheduled for Saturday. Starting at 5 p.m., Helper takes on Taylorsville in league play. This is sure to be a great set of games.